


Lightning

by Tatjna



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-27
Updated: 2013-09-27
Packaged: 2017-12-27 19:23:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tatjna/pseuds/Tatjna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A silly little bit of fluff about how teenage Anders learned the electricity thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightning

The stone bench is hard and cold. Every other time Anders has sat here, he's been waiting to find out how he'll be punished, guilt and fear warring with rebellion in his mind. This time he isn't, but he can't quite shake the nagging feeling that he'll be accused of something anyway, and he fidgets while sneaking furtive glances at the carved door to the inner office.

 

This was a bad idea. He shouldn't have come. He should ..

 

The door swings open, creaking on its hinges. There's a rumour among the apprentices that it's left unoiled deliberately to make it seem more intimidating. It seems to be working.

 

"Enter!" The deep voice that emerges from within and echoes around the chamber is strangely compelling, and Anders idly wonders if Senior Enchanter Sweeney practices summoning apprentices when nobody's around. He goes in.

 

"Ah, it's you again. Or, at least I think it is. You all look the same to me." Sweeney peers at Anders over his glasses. "Ambrose, isn't it?"

 

"Anders."

 

"Ah, good, good. Well, sit down Ambrose, and tell me what the trouble is." He leans back in his chair, hands folded behind his head. Anders avoids looking at the grey hairs escaping from a hole in the armpit of Sweeney's robe, and clears his throat.

 

"I'd like.. I'd like to learn Lightning." It comes out in a rush. "They don't teach it in Creation."

 

Senior Enchanter Sweeney leans forward and steeples his fingers. "Lightning, eh? Now why would a talented young healer such as yourself have need for a silly little Primal spell like Lightning?" He pierces Anders with his gaze, and Anders squirms.

 

"Well, it's just.. that.." His mind flashes back to that scene in the dimness of the library, the two older mages he'd caught doing.. something.. to each other, the tiny flashes of electricity moving across their bare skin, the looks of ecstasy frozen onto his brain before their Repulsion Glyph sent him reeling. The way it keeps coming back to him in daydreaming moments. He wants.. he doesn't yet know what he wants but he knows that Lightning is a spell he has to learn.

 

The sound of Sweeney clearing his throat brings Anders back to the present. "It's just.. um.. I have no defensive spells at all, and what if a demon attacks me?" He rushes on. "If I'm allowed outside after my Harrowing I might need to defend myself from bandits! And I hear it's good for catching rabbits too... and.." his voice fades as he runs out of ideas.

 

Sweeney holds up a hand. "Enough, Ambrose. I'm sure you have plenty of reasons for choosing Lightning in particular, of all the spells you could learn." He smiles, all innocence. "What about a nice fireball? Or an ice spell?"

 

Anders shakes his head, mute, blushing to the roots of his hair.

 

"No?" Sweeney is openly smirking now. "Very well then, I'll teach you Lightning if you promise you'll find a way to use it on that Templar in the library that's been giving me the stink-eye."

 

Anders nods.

 

"Follow me." Senior Enchanter Sweeney strides from the office, Anders trotting after him.

 

An hour later Anders leaves the practice room missing one eyebrow and with his hair standing on end, having mastered the basics of summoning and casting bolts of electricity. He couldn't be more pleased, and can't wait to find somewhere private to 'practice' some more. As he heads down the corridor, Enchanter Sweeney's voice pulls him up short.

 

"Oh, and Ambrose - don't go acquiring any burns in inappropriate places, will you?"

 

Anders' jaw drops and he blushes beetroot red as he shakes his head, then turns and speeds off.

 

Sweeney chuckles to himself as he makes his way back to the office, grinning as he thinks of his own embarrassed flailing for excuses to learn Lightning all those years ago, and of Enchanter Hannon's amused teasing as he taught him. Sooner or later, all the young mages would come to him and ask, thinking they were the first to have thought of it.

 

He smiles as he closes the door. Some things never change.


End file.
